Biography

Studied ballet for 5 years as a youngster, later getting into Shotokan karate, bodybuilding, and some kickboxing.Has a son Kristopher (b. 1987) and a daughter Bianca (b. 1990) with body-builder Gladys Portugues. Has a son Nicholas (b. 10/10/1995) with Darcy LaPier, although Van Damme initially denied paternity.

JCVD was the inspiration for the character Johnny Cage from Mortal Kombat. One of Johnny Cage's special moves was where he did the splits and punched his opponent in the groin, as seen when Van Damme's character, Frank Dux, punches a huge Japanese opponent in Bloodsport (1988).

Jean started martial arts when he was just 11 years old. He was introduced to the study of martial arts by his father. His father thought his son was physically weak so he wanted his son to start to work on his strength.

Jean-Claude: My last fight was more than 20 years ago. I'm not a fighter, I'm a lover. If somebody's going to speak bad about me, I will walk away. But if a guy like Steven Seagal slaps me once, I will slap him twice as hard. Life is full of violence.

Jean: (When asked what he does when he isn't shooting) I don't have a lot of time, because I never stop. I need to work and I sleep three hours a night. What counts for me today are: making movies, creating and giving dreams. I love music, Brel, Aznavour,… but also drawing and painting. And I love going to the movies.

Defined a Genre.

When the western martial arts movie scene was becoming stale with the same old bland shenanigans, it was all starting to get old, fast. It had been 12 years since Bruce Lee had left the big screen and a large hole needed filling. Van Damme brought to the scene what other martial arts actors couldn't, charisma. This along with his incredible flexibility (5 years of ballet) and excellent Karate skills, transferred really well to the screen. His first big role was in the 1985 movie No Retreat No Surrender, starring as the bad guy. He really stood out, but it wasn't until he approached Producer and Director, Menahem Golan; impressing him by performing a spinning kick over his head, that he was given the lead in Bloodsport, which for many years was the second most successful martial arts flick ever. His career continued to progress peaking in 1994 with the movie Timecop which took $100,000,000 worldwide. With a new generation of people coming through wanting a different kind of movie he was relegated to straight-to-DVD affairs. He doesn't spew out an endless line of forgettable movies though, making only one a year max, and with the recent high acclaims of JCVD he has had a resurgence. His movies may not be Oscar worthy but they are stylishly action packed and certainly entertained me as a teenager...oh who am I kidding, they still do.moreless

empty

Oh, please mr.Van Damme, dont kick my ass, i swear, i dont hate America! Jesus mother of christ, dont you see he is just another one "superman" who kicks 10000 asses in every film? This one and his friends (siegal, norris) are the dark page on America's cinema, a cinema wich has great films. Sorry, but this is the truth. Greetings from Greece.

Important:
You must only upload images which you have created yourself or that you are expressly authorised or licensed to upload. By clicking "Publish", you are confirming that the image fully complies with TV.com’s Terms of Use and that you own all rights to the image or have authorization to upload it.

Please read the following before uploading

Do not upload anything which you do not own or are fully licensed to upload. The images should not contain any sexually explicit content, race hatred material or other offensive symbols or images. Remember: Abuse of the TV.com image system may result in you being banned from uploading images or from the entire site – so, play nice and respect the rules!